24.11.09

Thank you on Ash's behalf for your comments yesterday (I know 13 might not seem like a lot of comments to some of you - it's hardly 200 - but STILL, I'm chuffed to bits when anyone out there takes the time to write!). There were quite a few remarks about his footwear - the pros but mostly cons of flip flops (but then they excused him since he had only popped out of bed for a cigarette). No one minded that he smokes, but the deal breaker for a few of you was the flip flops.

Which got me thinking: is it true, does a guy's choice in shoes really make or break it for you? I remember, back in my NYC days, my friend Charles (her real name was Cynthia) started working with our mutual work friend, Rob. Rob was soooo cute, looked like a young Mick Jagger, had a great apartment which he OWNED (rare, in our 20s, when most of us rented), & had left the company to be a young exec for MTV, with his own office. So what was the problem? Each of them separately went to dinner and told their side. It seems they'd been shopping, he needed jeans, tried on the boot leg cut.. the way he put it, he didn't get what the problem was, and he didn't CARE. He was happy to buy the skinny cut, if it meant that much to her.

As Charles put it: that wasn't the point. She simply couldn't see a future with a guy who didn't get WHY boot legs are so horrendous. I could see both their points, and tried to tell her he'd learned his lesson, and had no intention of making that mistake ever again. But she moved out anyway.

Last I knew, Charles had moved to Seattle and was living with a fisherman.

So girls (or boys, as the case might be): what is YOUR deal breaker? Would YOU sleep with a man who wore flip flops?

8 comments:

lol! um....my husband ONLY wears flip-flops. he does own one pair of dress shoes but i think they're in one of our stateside closets...oh, and he has a pair of golf shoes, even though there's no golf course in the BVI. he owns a suit from some funeral, but i doubt it fits. his daily uniform consists of some regatta tee, a regatta baseball cap (Mt. Gay rum caps are coveted around here- he is the proud owner of several!), J Crew cargo shorts and Island Pro flip-flops. he has a few Michael Kors shirts for dinners out.

this is such a funny topic to me- i can't even picture my man in real shoes on a regular basis...it's been years!

as for deal-breakers, i find them a bit shallow. sorry to those who don't, but- as picky as i am about style, i've never picked and chosen men based on what they were wearing. that's not to say i don't love/prefer men being stylish- on the contrary. my husband cleans up pretty nicely, as they say- to the point where his sailing buddies make fun of his attire (his affinity for JCrew gets him a few snickers), including his Versace glasses and contemporary hairstyle.

and by the way, the last time he went jeans shopping himself, it was about 4-5 years ago, when skinnies were not even available. i urged him to buy the very-flattering boot cut in a dingy-ish, slightly distressed wash. i thought they were the most stylish. he only wears long pants a few times per year anyway, so....they Levis are still "new" to him.

I love flip flops, I truly do. If it weren't for the fact that I'd catch cold even more than I already do in this climate, I'd wear them all the time - or go bare foot. Stephanie, I couldn't have said it better myself. I never got that thing - I remember people saying 'look at his shoes first' and I'd be so confused.. I don't even know what constitutes 'bad' shoes in men!

And oh, you're right: in that particular story, they didn't call them skinny legs. I think they were just 'straight legs'. Now I'm really curious what happened to Charles, and her fisherman! (I always wondered what kind of jeans HE wore ; )

I love how Aussie this makes Ash, popping out in his flip flops (or thongs as they would say in Australia... I'm half Aussie and have been living here for the last few years and I still don't get that they call them thongs... weird).

ANYWAY, I am not against flip flops at all. However, I think there is a time and a place. If it's a 42C degree day (like it was earlier this week in Sydney) they are probably the best type of footwear you can sport. You can actually get really nice, colourful ones so they're not all that bad. However, I am not in support of wearing flip flops when the occasion is more than just popping down to the local shops/beach/casual outing to nowhere special. I wouldn't go crazy about it though, just wouldn't appreciate it!

The dealbreaker for me with guys is hair. Definitely hair. If a guy has long hair, that's it, I cannot be with him until it is cut and he looks like a man again, haha!!

what is roadtrip23?

RoadTrip23 is the natural evolution from StreetStyle London, which is still here, and has been since 2009. Because there's more to the world than fashion, and there's more to the world than London. Lovely as London is.

I'll still be posting street style, if something really grabs me, but have expanded into other areas of interest, primarily travel, the arts, culture. Whatever I feel is beautiful or interesting: either man made, or a natural wonder.